LONDON – On December 27 1979, the Soviet Union started an operation inAfghanistan after its government’s requests, in response to a violentrebellion by extreme opposition elements. The conflict became aninternational effort, with thousands flocking from the Middle East andNorth Africa to assist Afghan Muslims in a “holy war” against the SovietArmy, Sputnik has reported.

American support for these fighters, under the auspices of Operation Cyclonelink>,is well-documented.

While supportive of these efforts, then-UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherand other officials actively denied British involvement in the efforts.

However, newly published declassified fileslink> reveal Britain provideddirect financial, material and practical support to resistance fightersbefore and during the Soviet occupation, in what may well represent theUK’s largest post-war intelligence operation since 1945.

Conflict Origins

On July 3 1979link>,US President Jimmy Carter signed a covert directive that provided secretaid to violent opposition fighters in Afghanistan. As Zbigniew Brzezinski,Carter’s National Security Advisor, later explained, the aid was sentin the full knowledge it would prompt the government to request Sovietmilitary assistance.

“That secret operation was an excellent idea. It [drew] the Russiansinto the Afghan trap. The day the Soviets crossed the border, I wroteto President Carter: we now have the opportunity of giving the USSR itsVietnam War. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow [carried[ on a warunsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about thedemoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire,” Brzezinski toldCounterpunchlink> in 1998.

However, the files indicate the US was not alone — Britain also covertlysupported the Afghan rebels before the Soviet invasion.

On December 17 1979link>,10 days prior to the Soviet Army’s entrance to the country, US VicePresident Walter Mondale convened a meeting in the White House — officialsagreed to discuss with Britain “the possibility of improving the financing,arming and communications of the rebel forces to make it as expensiveas possible for the Soviets to continue their support

The UK duly agreed to train the jihadist resistance in Afghanistan, andsend military specialists to support their efforts.

While the operation was carried out entirely in secret, Thatchereffectively acknowledged the policy — and its motivations — on January 28the next year, during a parliamentary debatelink>.

“If [the Soviet] hold on Afghanistan is consolidated, the Soviet Union willhave vastly extended its borders with Iran, acquired a border over 1,000miles long with Pakistan, and advanced to within 300 miles of the Straitsof Hormuz, which control the Persian Gulf,” she said.

Tourists or Terrorists?

The files reveal while the US provided far more in financial and materialterms to the Afghan jihad, the UK played a direct combat role, with covertBritish forces — in particular the SAS — practically supporting resistancegroups.

Current and former SAS officers trained numerous jihadi forces at MI6 andCIA bases in Saudi Arabia and Oman, teaching them sabotage, reconnaissance,attack planning, arson, and how to use explosive devices, heavy artillerysuch as mortars, and attack aircraft, among other things.

The SAS also, in conjunction with US special forces, training Pakistan’sSpecial Services Group (SSG), which led insurrectionary operationsin Afghanistan, in the hope officers could impart their learned expertisedirectly to jihadists in Afghanistan.

Mujahideen were also trainedlink>in theUK — snuck into the country as tourists, they spent three-weeks at a timein camps situated in Scotland and the North of England. A key trainer wasBrigadier General Rahmatullah Safi, former senior officer in the royalAfghan army who, who’d lived in the UK since the 1970s. He trained as manyas 8,000, continuing to live in the UK well into the 1990s, when he wasregarded link>by the UnitedNations as the Taliban’s key representative in Europe, by then theundisputed rulers of Afghanistan.

One key individual supported by the UK was Hadji Abdul Haq, of theHizb-i-Islami group. He was provided 600 ‘Blowpipe’ anti-aircraft missilesmissiles and maps of Soviet military positions by MI6, and introducedto the CIA.

[image: U.S. soldiers patrol the perimeter of a weapons cache four miles ofthe US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan (File)]Unlike many other jihadist groups, Haq had no qualms about targetinginnocent civilians, arranging the infamous September 1984 bombinglink>atKabulairport, which killed 28, and attacks on hotels.

Despite this, in March 1986 he was welcomed to the UK as a guestof Thatcher. An official spokesperson explained at the time the PrimeMinister had “a degree of sympathy with the Afghan cause” as they were”trying to rid their country of invaders, which you cannot say of the ANCor PLO.”

In reality, far in excess of a “degree of sympathy” with Afghan fighters,by that point the UK’s role in the conflict entailed directly militaryinvolvement not only in Afghanistan, but the Central Asian republics of theSoviet Union. MI6 organized and executed “scores” of terror strikesin Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, on the basis Red Army troop supplies flowedfrom these areas — the first direct Western attacks on the Soviet Unionsince the 1950s. MI6 also funded the spread of extremist Islamic literaturein the Soviet republics.

Soviet forces would eventually leave Afghanistan February 15 1989, leavingthe government of Mohammed Najibullah to be overthrown in 1992. By 1996,the Taliban had taken control of the country, during which time strongrestrictions were imposed on women, public executions were reinstituted,and international aid was prevented from entering Afghanistan, leadingto thousands of deaths through starvation.

Consequences Ignored

The US/UK policy had significant ramifications not only for the futureof Afghanistan, but the world. During the conflict, many individualsfunded, armed and trained by the West formed militant groups, whichin years to come would carry out terrorist attacks across the Middle East,Europe and North America.

For instance, the globally infamous al-Qaeda was led and peopled by formermembers of the anti-Soviet jihadist resistance — in a July 8 2005 columnfor The Guardianlink>, former UKForeign Secretary Robin Cook noted the group’s leader, the now-slain OsamaBin Laden, was “throughout the 1980s” armed by “the CIA, and funded by theSaudis, to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.”

“Al-Qaeda, literally ‘the database’, was originally the computer fileof the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with helpfrom the CIA to defeat the Russians,” Cook wrote.

Missing from Cook’s list of culpable parties were the British, and MI6.While there is no evidence of direct financial or material support givento Bin Laden by London in the files, he is knownlink>to havebeen granted entry to the UK on many occasions through the 1980s, speakingat several mosques and Islamic centers.

Moreover, several camps used by the mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghanwar, such as the infamous Tora Bora, were constructed with Britishfunding — these camps would subsequently serve as training centers andplanning hubs for domestic and international terror strikes by al-Qaeda.

The weaponry supplied by the UK to extremist forces also assisted theefforts of extremist groups in Afghanistan and elsewhere. For instance,Blowpipe missiles have regularly been found in Taliban and al-Qaedaarms-caches across the country since the 2001 US-led invasion — as lateas 2010link>,the mainstream media was reporting the shoulder-fired missiles were a majorthreat to US troops.

In essence, the UK both directly and indirectly assisted in the global riseof Islamist terrorism in the wake of the conflict — were it not for theirarms, supplies, training and funding, scores of extremists would lack themeans and infrastructure to plan and conduct major atrocities.

​The damning files were made available via UK historian Mark Curtis'”Declassified”project link>, which aimsto construct a fully comprehensive and searchable collection of Britishgovernment documents, making them more accessible to the publicthan currently. Moreover, the initiative seeks to encourage and supportother researchers in their own efforts, leading to the publication of moredocuments.